BP (NYSE:BP) Upgraded to Strong-Buy by StockNews.com

BP (NYSE:BP) was upgraded by equities researchers at StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report issued on Friday.

Several other research firms have also recently commented on BP. Erste Group Bank reissued a “hold” rating on shares of BP in a research note on Friday, June 14th. Scotiabank lifted their price objective on BP from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. TD Securities lifted their price objective on BP from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 8th. Raymond James lifted their target price on BP from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, April 15th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded BP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $38.60 to $42.30 in a report on Monday, March 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, BP has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $43.88.

BP Trading Down 0.6 %

BP stock opened at $35.51 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $37.27 and a 200 day moving average price of $36.49. BP has a fifty-two week low of $33.52 and a fifty-two week high of $40.84. The stock has a market capitalization of $98.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.13, a P/E/G ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 0.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a current ratio of 1.23 and a quick ratio of 0.94.

BP (NYSE:BP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 7th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.97 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.03 by ($0.06). The business had revenue of $48.88 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $53.65 billion. BP had a net margin of 4.51% and a return on equity of 13.49%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 13.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.66 earnings per share. Analysts expect that BP will post 4.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On BP

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. PSquared Asset Management AG bought a new stake in shares of BP in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $50,315,000. OLD Mission Capital LLC lifted its stake in BP by 145.5% during the fourth quarter. OLD Mission Capital LLC now owns 656,293 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $23,233,000 after purchasing an additional 388,931 shares during the last quarter. Beaumont Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in BP during the first quarter worth $6,682,000. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC lifted its stake in BP by 15.0% during the fourth quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 500,704 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $17,725,000 after purchasing an additional 65,425 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in BP by 13.9% during the fourth quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 487,648 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $17,263,000 after purchasing an additional 59,379 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 11.01% of the company’s stock.

BP Company Profile

BP p.l.c. provides carbon products and services. The company operates through Gas & Low Carbon Energy, Oil Production & Operations, and Customers & Products segments. It engages in the production of natural gas, and integrated gas and power; trading of gas; operation of onshore and offshore wind power, as well as hydrogen and carbon capture and storage facilities; trading and marketing of renewable and non-renewable power; and production of crude oil.